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Americans Dathan Ritzenhein And Matt Tegenkamp Come Up Short Of Their Time Goals

by LetsRun.comOctober 13, 2013

Wow, what a race.

Up front, the men’s race at the 2013 Bank of America Chicago marathon lived up to the hype. Before the race, the many of the top men’s contenders said they wanted a super-fast first half and they got it (61:52) and in the end, two of them delivered on their promise of greatness.

Kenya’s Dennis Kimetto went 61:52 for the first half and then 61:53 for the second half as he pulled away from fellow Kenyan Emmanuel Mutai in the final 1.2 miles to win today in a course record 2:03:45 – the fourth-fastest time ever run on a loop course. In the process, he shattered the course record set by Tsagaye Kebede of 2:04:38 last year. In finishing second in 2:03:52, Mutai became the first man to ever lose a race despite running under 2:04 on a non wind-aided course.

Kimetto, who last year ran the fastest debut ever on a loop course at 2:04:15 in Berlin before winning his first World Marathon Major, has now produced a very fine effort in all three of his career marathons.

“I am happy because I got the course record,” said Kimetto on the NBC Chicago broadcast after the race. “The conditions were very good.”

Kenyans were also third and fourth. Sammy Kitwara lowered his personal best from 2:07:22 to 2:05:16 for third, and 2013 Boston Marathon runner-up Micah Kogo lowered his personal best from 2:10:27 to 2:06:56 for fourth.

Dennis Kimetto just minutes from victory at the 2013 Chicago Marathon.

The two leading American men didn’t get the results they wanted. Dathan Ritzenhein, who ran 2:07:45 last year and was hoping to run 1-2 minutes faster this year, went out in 63:02 but struggled with cramping late and faded to a 2:09:45. Ritz did move up in the standings as he was ninth last year and fifth this year, as the super-fast early pace for the leaders destroyed most of the men who tried to go with it.

American Matt Tegenkamp, who initially said he was hoping to break 2:11 in his marathon debut and then lowered that to sub-2:10 in recent weeks, went out in 65:14 but faded a bit to 2:12:28, which got him 10th.

The Race

A pack of 12 men went through the first half in 61:52-61:54. In the end, that fast early pace would produce a ton of casualties. There was one big casualty before halfway, as the world record holder in the half marathon, Zersenay Tadese, was dropped before 20k and out of the race by 25km.

As the pace stayed hot, the lead pack got smaller and smaller. 9 remained at 25k and the fact that the rabbits only made it about 25k didn’t seem to hurt the pace. 7 were up there at 30k. At 35km, the field had been narrowed down to the eventual top four before it ended up being a two-man dual between Kimetto and Mutai.

Post-Race Reaction

After the race, Kimetto said he had no idea he was very close to world record pace. “I didn’t pay attention to the clock at all. I only paid attention at the end. It was only at the finish line that I saw I broke the (course) record,” said Kimetto according to David Monti.

After the race, the media tried to make a big deal of the fact that Kimetto took the lead after Mutai missed his water bottle at the 40k aid station. Both Kimetto and Mutai said this had no impact on Kimetto taking the lead and that it was just a coincidence.